Progarchives Top 25 Live Albums

My top five are stone cold classics as far as I'm concerned but with little votes so what do I know?

Zappa for me - one of the occasions where a live recording totally encapsulates a particular period of an artist’s oeuvre 

Edited by Duddick - August 12 2022 at 16:14

Solar Music Live. Anyone who hasn't heard it should be ashamed of themself. 

Saperlipopette! wrote: Mormegil wrote: essexboyinwales wrote: Isn’t Seconds Out held in very high regard? Surprised it’s not in this poll…. It is, and I'm surprised that it's not included here, but there's the suspicion that some of the work on this "live" album was redone in the studio. I don't know if that's actually the case . . . Here's the issue Saperlipopette! wrote: I was surprised that only a couple of the widely known "classics" I took for granted to be in the top ten or at least twenty weren't even close. I located Yessongs, Roxy & Elsewhere, A Live Record, Ricochet and Seconds Out in between the top 35-50. Space Ritual, Live - Bursting Out and Exit...Stage, Left all resided somewhere outside of the top 100. What does this all tell me? Primarely that obscurities with few ratings/reviews, but with an abnormally high rating average (as most of their raters/reviewers are fanboys) are weighted too favorably. Compared to household names that are rated/reviewed by "everyone".

essexboyinwales wrote: Isn’t Seconds Out held in very high regard? Surprised it’s not in this poll….

Certainly none of my favourite live albums are mentioned here (i do like Solar Music live and Coma Divine) but i would have to go with Änglagård as their live lp  is one of the few live albums of recent years that has really caught my attention, if only for their rather alarmingly flawless renditions of somewhat gnarly studio material!

Mr. Hackett.

There's nothing on here I know, which I would vote for.

Not what I would have expected either in the results (makes me want to do a RYM comparison).

I love Magma's Retrospektïẁ I-II (in my top five Magma). That version of "Theusz Hamtaahk" is, I think, awesome, and the "MDK" version I really love too. I would have expected Magma Live (Hhaï) to be represented, Ricochet as well as Camel's A Live Record, Space Ritual, the Rush and actually maybe Cardiacs' All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest (which I find very enjoyable).

The other Magma listed and Miles Davis' Dark Magus would also have received my votes had this been multiple vote. My most listened to live albums of late have been Swans' Omniscience, Ciśnienie's The Brass Album and JazzArt Underground, and outside of PA, Portishead's Roseland NYC. And a couple of days ago I was on a big Anna von Hausswolff kick (so good) and listened to Live at Montreux Jazz Festival (an earlier this year release). As a classic, I like Henry Cow's Concerts.

By the way, if Prog Related and Proto Prog is included, then one gets Deep Purple's Made in Japan at 7 and Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day at 9 (which I have not heard of, but I would have expected The Song Remains the Same Live in the list).

And here is RYM's all genres, all-time live list. CLICK Interesting that Swans' Swans Are Dead album is the second-highest ranked. Swans does much better in the RYM rankings than at PA.


Edited by Logan - August 12 2022 at 07:28